Expats in Costa Rica - Why are so many North Americans living in Costa Rica?

Living in Costa Rica as an expat has a number of advantages.  There are currently over 50,000 Americans living in Costa Rica and more than 15,000 Canadians living in Costa Rica. 

The advantages of living in Costa Rica include:

1. Lower cost of living
2. Lower property tax (currently less than $2.00 per $1000 in value)
3. Ease of Access - Cheap airfare, especially from the US with Delta, AeroMexico, Iberia, US Air, United, American, Spirit Airlines, Jet Blue, Frontier, Thomas Cook, Taca, Lacsa, Air Canada, Transat, Copa and more.
4. Healthier lifestyle
5. Less stress
6. Affordable health care - Both the private healthcare network, which is between a 10th and 1/2 the price of comparable care in the US and the nationalized health care under the CAJA, which will cost a minumum of $75 per month to up to $500 or so depending on how much you declare your income to be from outside of the country that you used to qualify for pensionado status.
7. Large expat communities
8. Many Costa Ricans speak English
9. No quarantine for pets
10. Part of Central American free trade group
11. First world infrastructure, Internet, banking
12. Availability of goods and services
13. Great climate
14. No tornadoes or hurricanes 
15. Livability
16. High literacy rate
17. Biodiversity
18. Longer life expectancy
19. Organic food sources
20. Abundant seafood, meat and poultry

In summary Costa Rica has become such a popular location for north American expats looking to live offshore for obvious reasons.  The large number of Americans living in Costa Rica continues to attract more.  Living in Costa Rica as an American has obvious advantages and Costa Rica continues to attract expats in record numbers. 

North Americans living in Costa Rica or planning to soon...